Rimbo writes: "Groklaw reports that Judge Kimball has ruled that Novell owns UNIX, and thus has the right to waive any legal claims against Linux (as it has already done). This ends the SCO saga; as PJ at Groklaw says, "There are a couple of loose ends, but the big picture is, SCO lost. Oh, and it owes Novell a lot of money from the Microsoft and Sun licenses." Time for PJ to put on that red dress she promised us."

Rimbo writes: "Suppose there's a place in the food court with a tray cart, the kind with the spring-loaded top that's shaped to fit a tray, designed for the storing of food court trays. Right above it, a helpful sign reads, "Trays," with an arrow pointing where the trays should be. Right next to that, there's a hooded trash can with seven trays stacked on top of it. For the sake of example, suppose the height of the trays just reaches the height of the tray cart, so there's no extra lifting or dropping involved to put a tray on either spot. What percentage of the population puts their trays with the others, on top of the trash can?"

Rimbo writes: "Stephane's Principle: An experienced software engineer can do more work in less time with a language he must learn on the fly that is appropriate to the problem than with a language he knows well that is not.
The conventional wisdom with software is to choose popular languages for projects, even where another language is more appropriate, to take advantage of the large numbers of programmers trained in that language.
Is Paul Graham's experience an exception that proves the rule? Or should Stephane's Principle be the general rule for new software projects?"